Greatest Baseball Player Ever

[TheNamelessPoet]

If I let someone out post them. I want to know wha people think.

[boomboom]

think of a player who dominated on the pitching front, even beat walter johnson a few times...

then went on to be a legion in hitting. When he retired he has hit somewhere between 300-400 more homeruns than the 2nd place guy.

No other player has been since, or will be that dominate.

It would be like Barry Bonds hitting 100 homeruns a yearand finishing with 1200 homeruns for his career...

[boomboom]

some other players you did leave out.

Ken Griffey Junior (10 straight gold gloves plus his bat..)
Pete Rose (charlie hussle, 4256)
Barry Bonds (718 and counting, hgh, steriods, just look at the numbers)
Micky Mantle (best switch hitter of all time)
Joe Diamaggio (cut his career short, but was good when he ended it)

[TheNamelessPoet]

I thought about Mantle and Diamaggio but I dont think they are in the class of cobb and ruth even tho they are probably in the top 10 of 15 all time. I thought of bonds but the whole steroid thing really ruins it for most of the big slugers from the last 10 years. Tho griffey was great, and was my boyhood hero growing up, he was not the calber of the imortals. Rose was not the man cobb was and tho he did do great things in his time I think cobb aaron and ruth HAVE to be ahead of him.
If A-Rod could hit in the clutch he would have to be considered to be 1 of the best all time but he padds his stats agains the poor teams like the royals and tampa bay. It is a little different now than it was the pitcing is more watered down. Now if ruth had played in todays game he would have to be rated the best all time undisputed. He would have 70 HR a season and probably almos 1500 in his lifetime. The reason I put williams up there is he is easily overlooked as 1 of the best hitters all time. His lifetime OBP is an unfathamable .482 CAREER!!!!!! That is rediculas not to mention that he was out durring his prime fighting in the war

[slappy]

if griffey stayed healthy he would have been the best by a long shot. I think Jackie Robinson was the best because of all the **** the fans and other players did to him. I wouldn't have been able to do it.

[QHowes]

This is a great poll, not because of the players listed, but because of all the players that aren't. Its such a big discussion, I chose "Other" because it is so difficult to say one guy is better than all the rest.

[SirKodiak]

No love for Bob Gibson?

[boomboom]

If A-Rod could hit in the clutch he would have to be considered to be 1 of the best all time but he padds his stats agains the poor teams like the royals and tampa bay.

The 2006 Devil rays could take on the 1927 and win probably 8 out of 10 times....

the Competition now days is better, the players are better, better workout programs, lighter bats, the coaching is better.....so when you say that ruth didnt have to play against poor teams, verses his peers he was god like. That is only because the competition was weaker.

[TheNamelessPoet]

the Competition now days is better, the players are better, better workout programs, lighter bats, the coaching is better.....so when you say that ruth didnt have to play against poor teams, verses his peers he was god like. That is only because the competition was weaker.

The problem is that now there are more pitchers whom would never have made any team in the 20's. In those days there were not as many teams and there weren't as many pitchers on a staff so their was not the need of hundreds of good pitchers. They didn't use closers ever really and if they did it was for about 3 innings. The Devilrays would be abe to score runs yes but the teams back then woud score 10 runs a game on their crappy pitching. Ruth was amazing tho. If there was a way to have ruth pitch have a day off than play the field could you imagine what his records would be like. 200 wins and about 500-600 HR.

[bmoseley07]

Come on. How can this not be a unanimous vote for Babe Ruth. Name another guy on the list or ever in the history of baseball that has played at the level Ruth has as both a pitcher and a batter. If Ruth had played out his career as soley as a pitcher, he would have been up with Cy Young in numbers, and if he hadn't have pitched, Ruth would have been in the 1000's for home runs. No player has matched his capabilities ever.

[disposablehero]

the Competition now days is better, the players are better, better workout programs, lighter bats, the coaching is better

its not as clear as you make it sound. there are just too many variables to make a clear cut case in either direction.

hows this for the other side...

if you were a good athlete in the early 20th century, you were a baseball player. if you are a good athlete now, you could be a football player, basketball, hockey, baseball, soccer, rugby, etc. although there are more people today and thus a bigger pool to draw from, there are also many more outlets. id venture to say that baseball players ARE NOT the best athletes in the US today, as they definitely were in the early 1900's.

.....so when you say that ruth didnt have to play against poor teams, verses his peers he was god like. That is only because the competition was weaker.

what about if you took Babe Ruth and planted him in today's environment, ie. he got to take advantage of the better training, improved equipment, dilution of talent across more sports and teams. would he not be at the top of today's game?

Babe Ruth was miles and miles ahead of the second best player of his time. is Barry? Pujols? A-Rod? or are they within striking distance of each other and the second best player?

maybe its not that the competition was weaker, but that he was just that much better than them?

[TheNamelessPoet]

That reminds me... didn't ruth pitch a 13 inning game in the world series one year with the sox.

disposablehero is right tho... I might ahve to change my vote to ruth if voted again. He did change the way the game was played. OMG if he played now he would hit 75-80 every year. Its hard tho, not to say cobb or williams. Im a bigger fan or high AVG and more extra base hits than i am HR's. Dont get me wrong I love to see a home run when im at a game but it always seems more fun when there are guys on and the hits just keep comming. I personaly think that a double streached to a single is maybe the most exciting play in baseball, aside from the tripple play. it sometimes seems that a HR can take the momentem away. When the next guy comes up its like he has to start all over again. He doesn't have that preasure on him that he would if there was a guy standing on base. It is just so hard not to pick williams since he was such an amazing player. He might have had the HR record if he didnt go to war, and who knows, he might have had an even higher OBP. The little he did play in his early to mid-30's he had an OBP of over .500.

in 1941 he had an OBP of .553 and STILL had 185 hits with 147 walks. Lifetime OBP,AVG, and K/AB was better than Ruth.

[QHowes]

Come on. How can this not be a unanimous vote for Babe Ruth. Name another guy on the list or ever in the history of baseball that has played at the level Ruth has as both a pitcher and a batter. If Ruth had played out his career as soley as a pitcher, he would have been up with Cy Young in numbers, and if he hadn't have pitched, Ruth would have been in the 1000's for home runs. No player has matched his capabilities ever.

But many players have easily matched his physique and athletisicm. He certainly didnt take care of himself.

[boomboom]

disposablehero is right tho... I might ahve to change my vote to ruth if voted again. He did change the way the game was played. OMG if he played now he would hit 75-80 every year.

He would probably hit .280 with maybe 30 homeruns now days...if you take babe ruth from the 1920's with him using his huge bat and overweight belly.

Now if you put ruth in this generation, where he grew up, he would probably be a good ball player in better condition, but he would not dominate now days as he would have then.

Say you take a-rod and put him in 1920, and they wouldnt work out or lift weights, would you think he could hit 50 homeruns, probably not, a-rod would probably be a slick fielding shortstop, with a little pop...that is it. He wouldnt be as big as he is now....

All I am basically saying, it would be nearly impossible for anybody to dominate the game the way Babe Ruth did in his generation today. The competition is more fierce, the competion is better...nobody could dominate for how long Ruth did (as a hitter) today. Bonds was up there but only for 4 years....but never at the domination of Ruth, not even close. Todays standards, Bonds is just finger tips above the rest, Ruth was mountains above the rest of his competition.

[boomboom]

Today it would be like somebody hitting 100 homeruns a year, and 1200 for a career.

We will never see that type of domination ever....well maybe in Little league....